Turkey Break

Thanksgiving break was wonderful. Lots of food, family, rest, and as much work as I could handle. I took Wednesday and Thursday off to recuperate and have been working since. This week/weekend I spent my time mostly in the ceramics studio. I slowed down with my building, especially since I had my conversation with Kate Tremel (the RC ceramics professor) about my work. After speaking with her I basically realized that I had no idea what I was really going for in terms of surface. Did I want it to be fuzzy, smooth, chunky,colorful, muted? She gave me a great list of artists to look up along with some suggestions about glazing. From this point on glazing should be experimented with as I am making my sculptures, or even before. I also need to do a crap ton of glaze and material tests to figure out what my own aesthetic is.The pictures I have on this post

show 6 glaze tests that I did (low fire) none

of which I really love. The washes (which I originally thought I was going to use on the large pieces) look very stark and graphic, not very inviting. I like some small parts

of other pieces, but not so much. I do like how the underglazes turned out inside the mouth. I think the contrast between a bright yellow or red will be exciting.

I want these pieces to ask the viewers to touch them. IN FACT, I think that I'm going to let the audience touch my pieces. Touch is so important to me as an artist, regardless of what material I'm working with, so why not let others? Kate mentioned that even through I was using ceramics I could use many other materials (possibly fibers) to achieve the surface I desired. THIS got my brain going... I didn't want to throw fibers out altogether and this may be a good way to incorporate it. An artists I was suggested, Jason Heckenwerth

(http://www.jasonhackenwerth.com/) creates these AMAZING, large, colorful balloon organisms. His scale, and more importantly his material choice is so friendly and inviting. He sometimes has his audience help create his pieces, or even wear them. His work is incredibly inspiring for me, especially the forms he creates. They look like they're right off the ocean floor. At this point I think my project may be shifting in tone... My proposal was very much based around the ideas of genetic mutation, speciation, ambiguity, and the cultural/site context of my installation.

I think those ideas along with adapting my forms and surfaces from biological organisms are still important, but that maybe interaction between myself and the pieces and the audience may take a larger role. Idea- the impulse to touch, what makes us want to feel something, to create something? What if the surfaces I was creating looked one way yet felt another. My work is physical and figurative and I want others to be able to experience it physically, not just visually. It's also a rarity to be able to touch artwork, especially in the context of a gallery. Most work is off limits, I sometimes even find myself nervous that I might break or touch a piece accidentally. I think it would be refreshing to produce a body of work that allows viewers to interact with it.

Other pictures I have on this post are of some mock up sculptures I did. They are about 6-7 inches at the tallest, so not as large of a commitment as my other pieces. Kate suggested that I make these to work my ideas/logistics out, and after bisquing them they can be mini test tiles. I also made some press stamps to create line and diatom like repetitions.

On a different note, someone asked me yesterday why I do art. My immediate response was that because it feels good and right, and that for the first time in my life (this year really) I am proud of what I do and want to engage others around it. This project is just as much about figuring out my process and expressing myself, as it is about creating a basic skill set in a medium that I barely know anything about.

Yams

This week I completely finished up my larger sculptures by cleaning up the texture and adding an orifice to the taller of the two sculptures. I also took care of some material logistics by teaming up with Lauren Sopher and making a 200 pound batch of clay that we bagged up to use in the future. I also started a new piece on Monday. Right now I have three different larger bulbous forms going and I'm not sure if I'm going to connect them to make a ground piece or use one (or more) as bases for new sculptures. I will probably decide by how I feel when I get up to the studio today/this weekend. Thanks to Janie/Erica I will be meeting with Kate Tremel today or sometime soon to talk about sculptural surfaces and glazing. At this point it really seems like I just need to do a lot of experimenting and really decide what my intent is for these forms because at this point I have plenty of ideas for new sculptural pieces.

I'm feeling good about the pieces I have completed so far. In the critique yesterday I received a lot of comments about my taller piece looking like an elephant trunk, which is ok but

I'm hoping that

when the piece is glazed and

not gray that people won't automatically think of elephant. I did decide to use the linear m

arks as the surface texture

of my pieces and I am very happy with the way that they turned out. People really liked the scale of my pieces which makes me want to continue making larger and some medium sized pieces, and maybe some smaller ones. We'll see.

As of right now I would like to hopefully get two more pumped out by the end of this semester and experiment the hell of some glazes and surfaces.

Looking forward to Turkey Day :)

Pictures are of my taller sculpture finished up, my sculpture eating a girl, and a sweet potato that really reminded me of my pieces. I thought it was hilarious so I bought it and made some yummy yam fries the other night.

Gold Panda

Dis Week:

I spent all of my studio time in ceramics plugging away at my sculptures. The fatter and shorter piece is practically done and the taller blub will be done this weekend. On Monday I will recruit some strong friends of mine to help me move the pieces into the 7 foot kiln. There they will chill for a week wrapped up and then I will begin to slowly dry them out for about a week and a half aft

er that. Ideally I'd like to have them fired sometime in the beginning of December so I know whether

I need to build another tall one again or not (pray to god not). I have been making some mini mock ups pieces to do glaze tests on and today I will begin

another sculpture once the TMP kids leave the ceramics studio, which is my favorite time to be there. From this point one I will be teaming up with my friend Lauren who is also working

in clay (but for a different class) and we will be makin

g clay and firing together. This is good for

me because I need to know how to do these things

and I also don't want to fire any of my pieces with the TMP kids because I don't want it

to blow up on my stuff or vice-versa.

At this point I'm just ready to start something new and keep producing. I had a g

ood interaction with Janie and Amanda yesterday with my work which encourages me in many ways. Now it's time to grind. Here are some images of the pieces thus far as well as my little mock tests.

Oh yeah and the taller piece..... is taller than me!!! It's about five and a half feet. Hell yeah.

Momentum

This week in IP studio.... Ceramics wahooo!

Yes so I spent my studio time in ceramics this week. I'm slowly but surely coming to the conclusion of these larger pieces. They are quite tall at the moment, so much so that I need to stand on a stool to work on them. In many ways the pieces are beginning to grow on me but I think I'm losing momentum at this point. I've been working on them for four weeks now and I think it's about time to start working on some new medium/ smaller sized pieces. I've done a few sketches (images above) but I want to continue drawing because it is helping me visualize the gestures or situations I want to create. I also spoke with John about the sketches and how to address the length and extension of the organisms and an easy solution is to make the pieces in parts and glue them together in the end. Because of this particular clay body I can do everything I am imaging with virtually no issues (knock on wood). I've also discussed the drying time of the bigger pieces with John and he has suggested that immediately after I'm done we load them into the 7 ft kiln, just in case anything breaks I will have the ability to fix it, then slowly dry it out in there for about two weeks (much less time than I originally thought).

I met with Erica yesterday for a while and it was very helpful. I determined aspects that were working and those that were not, along with a good plan of action. I am losing momentum and some interest in the larger pieces which means that I need to move on. Something I am considering doing (thank you Erica) is leaving the fatter of the two pieces at the stage it is in now, a little shorter with a big fat mouth. If I were to leave it where it is now it could incite more interaction. It looks like a huge mouth opening, and viewers can look inside and see the inners of the organism. I would contrast the glazes and/or textures on the inside of the piece. I knew there was some other reason to create these pieces hallow besides the obvious fact.

Above right is a picture of the texture that I have pretty much decided on for these large pieces. It's an all over texture that is grainy and has horizontal lines sweeping around the forms. I chose this because it felt natural to me, also it is referencing all of the stratified rocks I have seen in Turkey and on the way to DC. I think I will use washes on these pieces, probably deeper colors, burgundy and ocher colors, although I am not set on these (upper left image). I'm am not sure about my glazes at all really, which is why I am making mock sculptures and some cone 6 glazes and washes that I want to test. That is my goal along with hopefully finishing these tall pieces this weekend.

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I had broken off the top piece of my first sculpture, I went back this week and remade the mouth/snout piece. I really loved how it completed the gesture and it was a very important part so I recreated it and will glue it on at the end.

Lots to do, not enough time, but as long as it doesn't snow in Ann Arbor just quite yet I'll be happy.